Is Apple's shipping department flawed?

For those who ordered a MBP, i'm sure you're aware the wait went from 3-4 weeks to 2-3 weeks, to the recent 7-10 days.

I re-ordered mine on the 8th of March which ships 2-3 weeks (technically ordered on Feb 21st, but lost my place in order cue due to method payment mix up) for delivery. Now that supply is able to catch up demand, the 7-10 day waiting period is quite short. A lot people are still waiting for theirs to arrive, some even w/ the 3-4 weeks wait.

If one were to order one now and recieve it w/in 10 days, does it seemed wacked that those individuals would recieve theirs on or prior to those who ordered it way earlier? What's going on here? Is it something about shipping priorities that I don't know about? I can cancel my order this minute and receive it earlier than my latest shipping date of the 29th.

I don't know the answer but I'm getting tired of the poor shipping service to Finland and the lies and mistruths that come from Apple's "helpful" (sic) customer service department. Means it is getting harder to recommend Apple, especially where my name gets stamped on the recommendation. And this is a shame.

I know exactly how you guys feel. I ordered on the 25/2/06 and was given a shipping date of 21/3/06. I called apple yesterday for an update and was told that my order would be delayed by a week as they are having to catch up on a backlog of orders.

I'm sorry but they knew they had a backlog before they provided me with an original date so that does not make any sense also they have now reduced the lead time for shipping on their site.

I am a switcher from Windows XP but i am seriously reconsidering my purchase as i really don't want to deal with a company that can't even communicate with their customers properly.

Hmm.. well the Imac Intel... ordered on the evening of launch... put back for delivery several times even though it was shipping "next day" in UK store at times... Apple didn't have a good reason for that they'd admit to... but finally when pushed it had been "just upgraded for category 1 shipment (!)" and was "out for delivery today". To which that finally meant not that it would arrive tomorrow but they had just kicked it out the factory door and it took nearly two weeks to get here (plus taking a holiday with TNT along the way).

Have got no printed invoices for over a year... three times in the last month I have been faithfully promised they'd arrive.... nope...

Repair of PB12 with an Apple approved Specialist in Tampere.... rather challenging experience... Earlier repair of an ACD23 in Helsinki... stereotypical Finnish customer (mis) service proved...

Order of PPC G5 Imac last year... delayed delayed and delayed... and in all cases there was no strange build to order (all where local keyboard but intl English) requirements.

Quite envious when you hear about the customer service in US!

Plus countless other issues I've managed to forget tempoarily, probably due to frustration over the lack of working Sync (even fails on new machine).. and lack of Apple even telling you there's an error half of the time.

Mind you, still less hassle than Windows when you get the damn machine.

I think the lead times are an outright lie. For example, my girlfriend ordered an MBP about a week ago. When I was ordering for her the lead times on the site read 2-3 weeks. I clicked the order button and about 2 minutes later got an email confirming and stating an estimated dispatch time over 4 weeks away!

WTF is the point of stating 2-3 weeks on the main purchase page when once you order the truth is revealed to be over a month!? It's clearly a blatant lie.

I bought a Intel I Mac core duo directly from Apples website on February 9th the sales representative told me that if I max out the system, the order would not ship until March 2nd. I said ok I’ll wait. 2 days after I placed the order Apple sent me a email saying that the item has been shipped. The sales rep tried to convince me not to upgrade the entire system .. I thought about it for a sec and said no I want this thing maxed out. I’m glad I didn’t take the bait.

I know exactly how you guys feel. I ordered on the 25/2/06 and was given a shipping date of 21/3/06. I called apple yesterday for an update and was told that my order would be delayed by a week as they are having to catch up on a backlog of orders.

I'm sorry but they knew they had a backlog before they provided me with an original date so that does not make any sense also they have now reduced the lead time for shipping on their site.

I am a switcher from Windows XP but i am seriously reconsidering my purchase as i really don't want to deal with a company that can't even communicate with their customers properly.

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They may know they have a backlog, but until their allotment of computers arrives, they do not know how many back orders they may be able to fill. Put it this way, they may not even know how many they are actually going to receive. They may have 1000 on order from the manufacturer, but only receive 500. That is why your dates can get pushed back. It is not a sign of bad service it is a sign of higher than expected demand. Trust me, for new product launches, it is extremely difficult to balance having the right amount of inventory for the demand. Meaning having enough to service your customers but not having too much that you sit on a bloated inventory that takes 6 months to move versus 6 weeks. The more times you turn your inventory, the less cash you have tied up.

I know exactly how you guys feel. I ordered on the 25/2/06 and was given a shipping date of 21/3/06. I called apple yesterday for an update and was told that my order would be delayed by a week as they are having to catch up on a backlog of orders.

I'm sorry but they knew they had a backlog before they provided me with an original date so that does not make any sense also they have now reduced the lead time for shipping on their site.

I am a switcher from Windows XP but i am seriously reconsidering my purchase as i really don't want to deal with a company that can't even communicate with their customers properly.

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Its weird how this works.

I got my MBP from Macmall, I ordered on 2-24 and got my computer on March 8th. This was happening with Amazon as well. It seems like it really didnt do any good to preorder with any of the retailers.

Well lets see...according to Apple the MacBook Pro ship time is now down to 3-5 business days. I ordered mine on 3/2 and its STILL estimated for 3/30 ship (MAYBE). I called over the phone and they said it could take even longer???

How can they advertise this?? They need to catch up on ALL of their previous orders before making this kind of statement on the site

In fact the only items to ship ahead of schedule seem to be third party. I.e. I ordered an Elgato product with a 2 to 3 week ship time and then after a week it was en route (I guess they cover themselves with an ordering window). Shame they don't do it with own products.

Apple needs to beef up its sales and support to Europe, a growing market for it, else it could bounce back. US guys get express shipping. Express shipping in Europe (for a Imac for example) can be 7 to 8 business days after leaving the factory !

I know exactly how you guys feel. I ordered on the 25/2/06 and was given a shipping date of 21/3/06. I called apple yesterday for an update and was told that my order would be delayed by a week as they are having to catch up on a backlog of orders.

I'm sorry but they knew they had a backlog before they provided me with an original date so that does not make any sense also they have now reduced the lead time for shipping on their site.

I am a switcher from Windows XP but i am seriously reconsidering my purchase as i really don't want to deal with a company that can't even communicate with their customers properly.

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Hah! Yes, my 'priority replacement' was also supposed to be shipped yesterday. I got the email saying I probably wouldn't have it now until 4th April. Given that I've already paid up and am waiting for them to send me something that actually works I think that's pretty damn poor. I just called up and cancelled the replacement and should be receiving a refund for the Mac mini and Applecare parts of my order. What with this being my first encounter with Apple I'm utterly unimpressed so far.

I'll place a new order when they get themselves sorted out, preferably for a Rev. B unit that's a bit less fault-ridden.

Hah! Yes, my 'priority replacement' was also supposed to be shipped yesterday. I got the email saying I probably wouldn't have it now until 4th April. Given that I've already paid up and am waiting for them to send me something that actually works I think that's pretty damn poor. I just called up and cancelled the replacement and should be receiving a refund for the Mac mini and Applecare parts of my order. What with this being my first encounter with Apple I'm utterly unimpressed so far.

I'll place a new order when they get themselves sorted out, preferably for a Rev. B unit that's a bit less fault-ridden.

One of the main reasons for doing this in the UK is that we get 14 days upon receiving our product to change our mind for any reason. So, say if there was a fault that Apple wasn't recognising, a refund would still be possible. Once units start getting repaired and replaced this all becomes blurred. With mobile phones the rule has long been 'if it breaks within 14 days, get a refund'. The last thing you want to happen is to get stuck with something substandard.

Perhaps having to process a few refunds will highlight to Apple that they have unresolved manufacturing and shipping issues that need to be addressed.

One of the main reasons for doing this in the UK is that we get 14 days upon receiving our product to change our mind for any reason. So, say if there was a fault that Apple wasn't recognising, a refund would still be possible. Once units start getting repaired and replaced this all becomes blurred. With mobile phones the rule has long been 'if it breaks within 14 days, get a refund'. The last thing you want to happen is to get stuck with something substandard.

Perhaps having to process a few refunds will highlight to Apple that they have unresolved manufacturing and shipping issues that need to be addressed.

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I am in the UK and the distance selling regulations of 2000 state that by law you only have 7 days. Apple are nice and give you 10 altogether. It's NOT 14 so be careful you don't go over.

The law applies for replacements as well so every time a replacement arrives I get a fresh 10 days to get a refund. I have checked this both with Apple and Trading Standards and they both agree this is the case.

The reason I'm going for replacements instead of a new order is because the replacements get shipped earlier as they are put on priority and so skip the queue. So even though it is taken ages for me to get a MacBook what I'm doing is still faster than a brand new order.

I hate Apple quality control and shipping. If I hadn't sold my PowerBook in Jan I would give up by now and just stick with that.

The reason I'm going for replacements instead of a new order is because the replacements get shipped earlier as they are put on priority and so skip the queue. So even though it is taken ages for me to get a MacBook what I'm doing is still faster than a brand new order.

Do we actually have any proof that these replacements are 'priority'? According to the online store if I ordered a Mac mini today it'd ship before my replacement would have. Also, if Apple has new customers waiting for kit would they really hold them up to push through a replacement?

The lady I spoke to this morning mentioned that my replacement had been moved to a different factory, hence the extended dates. That doesn't sound like priority to me.

Do we actually have any proof that these replacements are 'priority'? According to the online store if I ordered a Mac mini today it'd ship before my replacement would have. Also, if Apple has new customers waiting for kit would they really hold them up to push through a replacement?

The lady I spoke to this morning mentioned that my replacement had been moved to a different factory, hence the extended dates. That doesn't sound like priority to me.

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From my ship dates it does appear my orders have been on priority. Here they are...

As you can see both the replacements have shipped less than 14 days after they were ordered. The ship times on the Apple store at these times were 3-4 weeks so both replacements have definitely beat that by quite a bit.

I'm still unhappy with the service I'm getting from Apple though. Waiting 2 1/2 months to get a working machine does not equate to good customer service in my book.

The lady I spoke to this morning mentioned that my replacement had been moved to a different factory, hence the extended dates. That doesn't sound like priority to me.

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I should mention that on both my replacements when I have checked the website they have had ridiculous estimated ship dates. The first replacement said it would ship about 6 weeks later. I called Apple and the reps told me yeah it will ship in 6 weeks. However, I asked to talk to a supervisor and he told me that the website was always completely wrong about replacements and that it would ship much much earlier. Sure enough it shipped just over a week later.

Same with the 2nd replacement. Ship date on web said mid April and I'm expecting delivery today. I suspect what happens with replacements is that the web site calculates the estimated ship date as if it were a new order when in reality the priority flag on it makes it skip the queue. In my experience the normal sales reps just read out what the web site says... they don't seem to know that a priority order will ship much faster.

So, probably if you hadn't cancelled your Mini it would have shipped much earlier.

Yeah, I guess it might have shipped earlier than the extended date, but the original ship date for the replacement was yesterday and that certainly didn't happen. So, in my case, I don't think I had anything to lose.

To be honest, if they're giving you 6-weeks-time ship dates then damn right it should ship early!

Yeah, I guess it might have shipped earlier than the extended date, but the original ship date for the replacement was yesterday and that certainly didn't happen. So, in my case, I don't think I had anything to lose.

To be honest, if they're giving you 6-weeks-time ship dates then damn right it should ship early!

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Well if you don't need the machine urgently I think you were right to cancel. Apple has treated us both badly. If I didn't need a Mac laptop for my work (researcher and programmer) I would have cancelled long ago.

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